If a hiring company 'ghosts' you after a bunch of interviews, here's how to stick up for yourself

A professional recruiter says that 'ghosting' is
becoming more of a problem.

That's when a company stops responding to you
after you've done several interviews.

If you've been ghosted, you can
send the company a firm email saying it's not ok, says
this recruiter.

Jane Ashen Turkewitz has been a recruiter in the advertising and
tech industry for more than 15 years and has become increasingly
appalled at how rude hiring companies can be to prospective
employees after interviewing them.

Turkewitz now runs her own recruiting firm, .comRecruiting.com, in part
because of the level of insensitivity she saw. "I was sick of it
all. I thought that we needed to do it all in a more empathetic
way," she told Business Insider.

Case in point: she recently wrote
a post on LinkedIn that has gone viral. In it, she dared to
suggest that if a hiring company "ghosts" you after putting
you through multiple interviews, you should speak up for
yourself and let them know it's not ok.

You've sent multiple polite emails or made multiple phone
calls for about a month after your last interview, and no one has
responded to any of them.

You've given up on the job and are ready to move on.

Make yourself feel better ... or not?

If you are feeling dejected about such a situation (and really,
who wouldn't be?), sending such an email won't help you get the
job. But it might make you feel better, "and that's a valid
reason right there," Turkewitz says.

The email should be polite but firm. Here's her suggested text:

I hope one day, if you are in my shoes, interviewing for a new,
exciting job, that you are not treated in such an unkind manner.
Wishing you and yours continued success as I find success
elsewhere."

"I would like to thank you for the opportunity to interview for
the role of X. I was surprised, after my 7 rounds of interviews,
to not hear anything regardless of my attempts to stay engaged.

Due to the lack of response, it's a fair assumption that you have
decided to move in another direction. While I am
disappointed, I certainly respect if someone more qualified
entered the picture.

That said, isn't it common courtesy to let a candidate know where
he stands in the process, even if it's a difficult conversation?
A rejection is disappointing but 'ghosting' shows a lack of
leadership and empathy.

I hope one day, if you are in my shoes, interviewing for a new,
exciting job, that you are not treated in such an unkind manner.
Wishing you and yours continued success as I find success
elsewhere."

This post with her sample email has been shared over 165,000
times on LinkedIn, liked by over 1,100 and received nearly 200
comments, which confirms to Turkewitz what
she's seen in her own career: that "ghosting happens a lot,"
she says.

Turkewitz says she's been surprised by the comments. Many people
didn't agree with her that they should speak up in this way.

"I definitely think ghosting is poor etiquette, but I would be
cautious about sending a passive aggressive response. I think
it's best to chalk it up to a loss (or possibly a gain) and move
on," one person responded.

But Turkewitz believes that if you're ready to kiss the job
off anyway, speaking up is ok and might do the next person
some good.

"If it were me and somebody wrote me a note like that, I would be
mortified. I wouldn’t be angered as if someone burned a bridge. I
would be thinking, 'They met with 3 or more people and nobody got
back to them? That’s a problem. Something is broken here,'" she
said.

Turkewitz does caution not to be quite so firm if the
company never responds after a single interview. While that's
still rude of them, in her opinion, it is also very, very
common.

She suggests a note more like this: "I would like to thank for
opportunity the interview. I’m assuming you are moving
forward in another direction."